of a santa claus per hour? i have no idea. maria: yeah, i mean, we need more workers but the answer, i know, is not a wide-open border, like alejandro mayorkas has been allowing. we don't know whose coming in. big stories this morning, ladies you've got this unrest happening in china. we'll see where that goes. you've got the potential for a rail strike on the horizon. lots of economic data and a market, dagen, that has been doing well in the month of november in the face of all of that. dagen: right. i'm just surprised that if the lockdowns are bad for the economy, that be good for fed policy but you got a 200 point loss on the dow futures. maybe that jobs report at the end of the week will do something better for the markets maria: we'll see. dagen, liz, great to be with you this morning have a great day everybody, we'll see you again tomorrow "varney" & company begins right now ashley webster in for stu. ashley, take it away. ashley: thank you, good morning to you, maria, good morning, everybody.

i'm ashley webster in today for stuary varney and yes, we start this morning with unrest in china, from shanghai to beijing protests have erupted in anger over the country's lockdowns and zero-covid policy and amazingly, some calling for the removal of xi-jinping. we'll get into that. meanwhile, dr. fauci now has, he says, an open mind, about the origins of covid, when asked about a possible lab leak. fauci says it hasn't been proven yet and he says we are, by the way, still in a pandemic. the chinese protest though hitting our markets this morning take a look the dow off 211 points, the s&p down three- quarters of a percent and the nasdaq also down about half a percent. taking a look at the 10 year treasury yield we follow this everyday. really gives us a clue and it is up barely by half a basis point 3.69% on the 10-year, what about bitcoin given all of the stuff that's going on in the crypto world these days, and it is down

but its been in the same level around 16,000, it's 16, 175 on bitcoin. and what about oil hitting new lows by the way as the biden administration announced chevron will be allowed to resume drill ing in venezuela. interesting, crude down to 74 bucks a barrel. the shopping meantime continues on this cyber monday. black friday online sales topped $9 billion. will we see a new record today? a ton of action at the world cup , riots in brussels, the u.s.-ea scoreless draw but the game drew a massive audience with more than 15 million views. can you believe and by the way, iran is calling for the u.s. to be suspended for briefly removing the emblem from the iranian flag in support of all of the protests going on in iran. big show ahead as always, national retail federations matt shay, louisiana senator bill cassidy, joe concha and

will cain are all here today. it is monday, november 28. "varney" & company about to begin. ashley: all right let's get right to this. the protest protests erupting, good morning to you, lauren. give me the very latest from what's going on in china. lauren: it is unprecedented, and we haven't seen anything like this since 1989, ashley, so the catalyst seems to be an apartment fire that was last week. ten people died. many speculated that part of that city where the building was had been under lockdown for 100 days and they think these barriers setup that hindered the fire trucks from arriving and people died. not from covid, from the fire. we saw protests spread to many

cities including beijing and shanghai over the weekend. large crowds of peaceful protesters gathered and they held these blank sheets of paper that had become a symbol of this protest. the blank sheets are meant to evade the sensors. police are patrolling the streets today. you do see heightened security. we have not seen new signs of new protests but that doesn't mean they aren't happening, and the markets, obviously, are responding. they are down in a big way. the question now is, you have anger, you have unrest, you have large displays of civil disobedience. what does this mean for china's reopening plan? they were slowly opening back up , or so it seemed. do they double down on that or do the opposite? ashley: yeah, and it's those type of questions and the uncertainty, lauren, that is certainly hurting the markets not only here but in asia and europe as well. lauren thank you very much and as you look at the futures down about half a percent

across-the-board. david nicholas is here. david, thanks for joining us today. how do you see these mass protests impacting the markets and what they may mean for the world economy? >> yeah, ashley, this st. biggest open show of resist an in mainland china in over 30 years. this is a big deal. the authorities are working overtime like you just mentioned to censor this but it does matter for markets mainly because so many u.s. companies make a lot of money in china. if this leads to, i think, the communist government cracking down with a more forceful response, it could be the entire city of beijing is shutdown, so what that does for earnings, i mean, there's the earnings side of it which is unfortunate but there is the people side of it that's heartbreaking but this is a business show and we talk about the market side of it and it hurts markets where you see market sell-off today but you're also seeing energy prices right? energy is coming down which is good, but we want energy dropping for the right reasons, not because one of the major economic powers could be heading into a shutdown or a vault or

economic times going forward, so we're watching it but this is certainly going to impact markets in a big way, ashley. ashley: want to get this in quickly, david. jay powell also speaking on wednesday. what do you expect to hear? more caution? >> yeah. well you know the markets are pointing right now the terminal rate will get above 5% but the market is hoping it comes down quickly. i think powell will try to walk that back. i think he's going to let us know rates stay higher and they stay longer. the markets are up since the election ashley, almost 8%. we've seen a very good rally in the last couple of weeks. i think he's going to want to pour cool water on that so that we don't get ahead of ourselves but we want to be buyers on dips but we'll seahawkish language this week. ashley: got about 20 seconds david. very quickly, you like blackstone, why? >> yeah, i'll tell you, ashley, blackstone is the dominating private equity firm right now. they are diversified in energy travel, leisure, real estate, 80 % of their real estate

holdings have rents that are increasing faster than the rate of inflation. they just had their second-best quarterly earnings report on record. it's a great stock and you get paid about a 5% dividend so i think it's a great name to pick-up today, ashley. ashley: we'll take it. all right, good stuff, thank you very much, david nicholas joining us this morning. now, we have to get to our elon musk headline. it is what? 9:07 we're slipping. all right, lauren what's going on with mr. musk today? lauren: you're seven minutes late, ashley. well you know, it turns out he might make a new phone, if the app stores of google and apple ban twitter. so roth was the man in charge of policing the internet at twitter , he resigned and when he did he wrote a new york times op-ed and in it he warned that if twitter fails to adhere to the google and apple guidelines by allowing unfettered free speech, that could be, he said, catastrophic, and a major risk is as a result twitter's booted from their app stores. so, elon musk was asked, well how would you respond to

that if you're booted from the app stores of alphabet and apple, and he said he could certainly create an alternative phone, and i think that be easier for him than designing a rocket. maybe easier than a car. ashley: yeah, no kidding. you wouldn't bet against him but i want to move on to politics now lauren as the current democrat leadership in the house preparing for apparently a new generation to lead, but not everyone on board, right? lauren: so, all-in, the passing of the torch is expected to go smoothly so hakeem jefferies takes nancy pelosi's job as leader, katherine clark and pete aguilar take the second and third sports they are all between 43 and 59 years old facing no challengers. here is the rub. nancy pelosi and steny hoyer are stepping down from their roles but jim clyburn who joins them in the 80-plus club, he's not. he has endorsed all of the young blood but he will keep a leadership position as the fourth ranking democrat in the next congress and that

leaves joe naguse of colorado as out, elections are this week on wednesday. ashley: fascinating to follow. lauren thank you very much. great person to talk to about this. mike huckabee, he's the former governor of arkansas, joins us now. good morning to you, governor. so what do you make of the in- fighting within the democrat party? this age issue? >> [laughter] well as a republican, i enjoy it i'll pop some popcorn, put my feet up and watch. i think it's interesting though when jim clyburn says that it's biblical for him to stay on, i'm thinking biblical? i've heard a lot of different metaphores but biblical ain't one of them when it relates to anything congress but i guess there could be at least one maybe biblical connection. methusula, the oldest person that is recorded in the bible. maybe that's what clyburn is up to. their leadership is basically over the age of 80, you know, kind of pushing up toward 90 for gosh sake, so maybe he just

wants to take a stand for , you know, the elderly and those who have been in medicare for at least 25 years. who knows? it just, it's an interesting position that he's taken. ashley: well, you know, the issue of age has come up in politics in general, governor, and do you think there is, perhaps, the time now where we should start thinking about the new generation? your daughter, governor of arkansas now, she be the new generation. is it time for some of those who have been around a long time and yes, they have a lot of experience, but should they move on and give younger people an opportunity? >> well, sure. i think that's part of the circle of life as we learned from simba and the lion king. it's the way it works. look, i think there's a value in some of us old grey hairs, we've learned a few things, been around the block a few times, been beat up some, but there's also something to be said for the creative ideas that

younger people bring. a good mix is ideal, and, you know, not bad to some old folks hanging around but really? i think it is time for a new generation to take hold. ashley: well it's interesting, isn't it? let's talk about the republicans we talked about the in-fighting with the democrats, but where are the republicans right now? i would argue they have a much stronger bench than the democrat s. there's no doubt about that, but is there still this split between those very loyal to say donald trump and those perhaps more centrist? >> i think it's not so much about donald trump the person. i think it's about the policies and a lot of people have never understood that what made donald trump an attractive and a very popular president was that his policies were for working class people. he helped transform the republican party from the wine and cheese country club crowd the one that sets around and hangs out with the swell, the liz cheneys of the world who love the georgetown cocktail parties but who didn't really know

anybody that came home fully sweating through their clothes everyday, and instead, the republican party is now un apollo get icily a party that is pro-life, pro-worker, pro- blue collar, and pro-america what a novel idea. that's the party that i think people want to keep. ashley: great place to end it and great as always to talk to you this morning, governor mike huckabee, thank you so much. >> thanks ashley. ashley: let's take a look at the futures, thank you. let's take a look at the futures pointing to a lower open as we kind of try to figure out what the hecks going on in china and perhaps the slowdown in the economy there. the protests over covid, all of this uncertainty and the supply chain of course the dow off 218 points. all right, coming up, republican s are calling to investigate dhs second mayorkas for his handling of the border but listen to what an msnbc anchor had to say about that. >> your reaction to kevin mccarthy? his threats of investigations, if the secretary doesn't resign,

is this what we can expect if kevin mccarthy becomes speaker of the house? leadership by bullying? ashley: bullying? huh, we'll get into that. then there's this. dr. fauci scoffed at criticism he aligned himself with democratic leaders at the height of the covid outbrake and he's warning the u.s. is certainly in a pandemic and we'll bring you what else he had to say later in the show. ♪ as an independent financial advisor, i stand by these promises: i promise to be a careful steward of the things that matter to you most. i promise to bring you advice that fits your values. i promise our relationship will be one of trust and transparency. as a fiduciary, i promise to put your interests first, always. charles schwab is proud to support the independent

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, and we are facing mounting supply chain problems. not only that, there's a looming rail strike on the horizon. madison alworth is at a train yard in the bronx this morning. madison is there any sign these issues will clear up before christmas? reporter: ashley, the hope is that they do, because if they don't, this be an absolutely devastating rail strike. it would have an impact of about $2 billion a day on the economy and of course, it'll put pressure on a supply chain that is already weak, so something needs to be done before next week. with that looming possibility of a strike, what we're looking at is supply chain experts warning that companies are already starting to cancel and adjust orders anticipating that there's going to be a problem and a potential slowdown at the least. if a strike were to happen, it would impact christmas. of course it's on everyone's mind, take a listen. >> yes, as the largest customer of the rails and all other small

parcel carriers, so if you're ordering and sending gifts to people and these are going out by transportation methods, if it's stuck in the rail, so therefore, you could order something that's on a shelf or in a warehouse but because it's by rail it could be delayed. reporter: that's why more than 300 business groups including the u.s. chamber of commerce and the american farm bureau have urged the white house to intervene saying that the potential of a work stoppage could effect the supply chain by taking essential products like fertilizers and fuels out of circulation. representative brian fitzpatrick telling foxconn greg all intervention be a last resort. >> failure is not an option. we can't have our transportation system responsible for one-third of our products being transport ed throughout our country shutdown. that's not an option. reporter: so ashley, what we're looking at is the potential strike on december 9, but what s al was saying earlier

about ups and when i mentioned about things slowing down before hand, he expects companies would start canceling or minimizing orders as early as december 1 next week so these next two weeks are really crucial in terms of figuring out this rail situation. ashley? ashley: yeah, all right, madison alworth in the bronx, madison, thank you so much. of course, it is the biggest retail season of the year, but inflation is squeezing everyone 's pocketbooks. guess what? andy puzder is here. andy, great to see you. my question first be do you think we're going to see a weaker holiday season this year? it seems like people are still spending. >> yeah, people are spending. people are going deeper into debted, consumer debt is i think the highest its been in decades, so people are still, still seem to be spending. i think the rail strike, it always increases the cost of every product could well cut into those budgets but so far it

looks like consumers are still spending. ashley: and from a retailer's point of view of course to attract everyone wants a deal these days, that's just the way it works. how much is that hurting the bottom line for so many of these, you know, businesses? >> well it's hurting a lot. the restaurant industry, you can drive down the street, any street, with a bunch of fast food restaurants and you'll see that everybody is competing based on cost. based on absolute value. they all want to get the price of everything down. you don't really see any competition for quality for what you buy. in other words, you're offering a premium product but at a discounted price, so it has a major, it's having a major impact on how businesses are operating ink across country. ashley: all right, andy, we're going to have to leave it there. we have some issues with your audio and of course we want to hear you loud and clear. we're just not doing that right now. >> sorry about that. ashley: thank you very much for joining us. yes, hey, technology, right? andy thank you very much let's move on. now this. i guess you could call it

lobster-gate. whole foods is under fire for removing some lobsters from their shelf. i guess lauren what's going on? lauren: it's an environmental issue, so an environmental group claims that the fishing gear like the entanglement equipment threatens a specific well. the north atlantic well which is near extinction. no well has died from the gear that's being used. still, whole foods isn't selling it. maine is home to the nations fishing industry and a group of bipartisan lawmakers from maine says in part, we are disappointed by whole foods decision. they are deeply frustrated, and they think that this is going to harm the livelihoods of hard working men and women up and down maine's coast. so the environmental group spoke , whole foods listened. they banned that log lobster from their shelves and people are mad. ashley: yeah, all right now we know the story. lauren thank you very much. let's take a look at the futures

if we can. getting ready for the opening bell and we're going to have a lower start, all of the uncertainty of china, the lockdowns, the protests, you name it certainly cast casting a shadow over world markets here in the u.s.. guess what, the opening bell, coming up next. ♪

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humana. a more human way to healthcare. ashley: all right just getting this. the white house is just released a statement on the protests in china. here it is. in fact we've just lost it but it's commenting on, here we go. we've said that zero -- this is what the white house is saying. we've said that zero-covid is not a policy we're pursuing here in the united states, and as we've said, we think it's going to be very difficult for the people's republic of china to be able to contain this virus through their zero- covid strategy. of course it goes on to say we've long said everyone has the right to peacefully protest here in the united states, and we hope that they recognize that in the people's republic of china. just sending out a message there let the people protest. i'm not sure beijing will have any comment on that. let's bring in keith fitz-gerald

keith, we see the futures moving lower now. we've seen this in asia earlier today, and in europe. how do these protests play out? you don't see beijing bending to anyone, but how does it play out , do you think? >> well i think this is going to be very very interesting. this is going to be potentially the most serious uprising since tienemen square, and it's going to royal companies like apple, or tesla, or other western manufactures that have long been involved in mainland china from a manufacturing standpoint. ashley: you know, the one thing that beijing could do here, i think they were going to start easing off on their covid lockdowns in april of next year, believe it or not. they could move up that time to try and appease the protesters. that could happen and that be probably best all around but do you see beijing doing that? >> no, i don't. i'll tell you what i've got a lot of experience inside mainland china.

the one thing that xi-jinping will not tolerate above all else , ashley, is civil unrest. so it doesn't matter what the people say. how they protest. what they do. they are building huge lockdown and quarantine facilities. nobody is going to knock xi-jinping off his game because the one thing they don't want to do is lose control. so i think it's going to royal markets for quite sometime to come, but again, most of it's going to be one of these things for xi-jinping, not the impact the west is hoping for. ashley: so as that plays out what do you think about a santa claus rally this year? >> you know, absent that, i'd say actually, the economy is in pretty decent shape. we've got relatively strong, well record earnings or record spending, excuse me, i haven't had enough coffee yet, ashley. record retail spending on black friday over the weekend, cyber monday coming up. i think that bodes well. people have just had it with having had it. they want this market to go forward, so a lot of the buying we're seeing over the last couple weeks is good. ashley: well what are you buying right now? >> well, i typically like to

look for chaos as an opportunity , so i'm going to be looking to apple and tesla this morning, maybe later in this week if the situation continues to magnify in the headlines those things are going to be on sale and survive this china, who knows. ashley: yeah, individual stocks as opposed to sectors right now, really a stock picker's market. >> i think so, because buying an index or a fund ashley is a lot like buying cable television you have to pay for the channels you don't want to get the ones you do. buying an index or etf is the same thing. ashley: i love it great analogy as always. keith fitz-gerald thank you for joining us this morning. >> [opening bell ringing] ashley: debating the impact on what's going on in china, the protests over the covid lockdowns, impact on supply chains and what that could do, certainly global markets are shifting a little lower on all of the uncertainty so let's get this trading week underway here on monday inning. we are up and running right out

of the gate the dow off 160 points let's take a look at the big board mostly red is it not? amgen, walmart and coca coal barely in the positive, but all the rest in the red. look at apple there. lagging behind with all of the stuff going on in china, and especially that foxconn factory. as for the s&p, down three- quarters of a percent at 39.97 let's take a look at the nasdaq that has so much exposure to the big tech names. that index down just over half a percent down six-tenths of a percent and let's take a look at some of the big tech names if we can. amazon on the upside up nearly 1 % but then meta, microsoft, alphabet and again apple trailing. apple down around 2%. all right, talking of apple let's start there. good morning to you, susan li. >> good morning. ashley: let me ask you this. is the unrest in china hurting production? >> yeah, possibly, around 6 million iphone 14 pros in particular that could be delayed because these china covid

disruptions according to bloomberg so it could be more. it could be less, depending on how covid goes in china and whether or not these unrests get quelled, and that large china iphone factory by the way makes a majority of all of the high-end pros and pro maxes that are shipped all around the world so that means apple apparently according to bloomberg has lowered their internal production targets to 87 million handsets instead of 90 million. wedbush, dan ives saying this morning he believes 5 million iphone 14s have been impacted. apple though hasn't come out with a sales warning just yet, which they usually do when they their guidance is at risk because they have a very conservative guidance as you know. now that might happen closer to the earnings release en early 2023 but it's pretty notable for now they are sticking to a few percentage points up from last year's record breaking $139 billion holiday sales quarter which as you know is pretty tremendous so they are sticking to that guidance for now, and i think until you hear from apple, that they are

going to pullback on some of their guidance, i think you still have to pencil in that it's a huge three months of sales to end 2022. ashley: very interesting indeed. show me tesla. down this morning, i believe. is this also because of what's going on in china? >> yes, absolutely, because tesla's main chinese factory close to shanghai which as you know has seen the most anti- lockdown protests so far. there's more disruption in that particular area, and tesla has used that shanghai factory that china factory, not only to supply the chinese market but also to export to europe as well until giga-berlin ramps up which won't happen until maybe closer to the middle of next year and also note that you had 80,000 cars being recalled in china last week and that means that you have tesla still trading close to those two-year lows and tesla shareholders that are stuck with elon musk throughout the entire twitter takeover, you know, they are getting a little trust rated

frustrated. ashley: let's take a look at disney of course in the news a lot, newly-reinstated ceo bob iger already facing issues. >> it's so interesting, because i just read bob iger's autobiography over thanksgiving and it's pretty much the same issues from 2005 now in 2023 so remember when bob iger took over in ceo in the first place, in 2005 animation and cartoons that studio was not doing well but it seems like the same problems again in his return, so second bomb in a row for animated disney films is a strange world, it only brought in 18.6 million this weekend which is disappointing for a disney film. lightyear, also a disappointment this summer and you can also say raya and the last dragon was dismal at the box office only brought in 8.5 million sure it was during covid you could argue but i think audiences are so used to bob chapek's strategy of releasing all animated films on disney plus and streaming at the

same time they go into theaters so why pay a premium to go watch it in the theaters? now, we'll see whether or not bob iger changes that strategy but we are expecting some changes possibly a big deal since that's kind of what he does, right? he bought pixar during his time, lucas film, marvel, and of course the fox studio assets. ashley: right. very interesting indeed. all right we got some winners today. casino stocks are up. whys that? >> and if bob iger by the way can change around the animated studio in 2005 he might have that same magic again in 2023 but here is green for you because these casino operators had their macau licenses extended for another 10 years so it wasn't 100% and also, this was their cash cow for a long time. you have to remember that at its peak, macau was four times the size of a las vegas strip when it comes to gaming revenue and vegas casino operators, you know they have gone all-in really on macau. sands doesn't even operate a vegas casino anymore, so when

you get licenses to continue to operate there over the next decade or so that's pretty positive for your stock. ashley: yes, it is. look at those casinos all nicely in the green. let's check the price of oil, hitting its lowest level by the way since december of last year. what's going on there? >> briefly went negative for 2022 and so i think there is several factors here i'm sure you'll talk about venezuela in just a bit since we know chevron might be allowed to again drill back in venezuela so that means more supply on to the market which of course depresses pricing, but also, the fact that china covid lockdowns means there's less use of oil, and there are concerns these anti- lockdown protests might impact the global economy. that's why you're seeing oil prices fall to their lowest for this year. ashley: very good. let's move on, biogen down big today. has this got to do with the alzheimer drug? >> that's rye so they have an alzheimer drug that's up being tested in trial but there's a publication called

science.org, and they reported a woman that participated in the trial of their experimental alzheimers drug and the treatment had actually recently tragically died from a brain hemorrhage, so that's a concern, and you know, we're all looking for the holy grail of some sort of medication that helps us, of course, improve alzheimers and there is just concern this drug might not make it through clinical trials if that case is proven true. ashley: yeah, disappointing news for sure. susan, thank you so much. covered a lot of ground there. coming up, elon musk says his preference for the 2024 presidency is someone sensible and centrist, so would he back trump or desantis? we'll tell you who musk wants on the ticket. interesting. remote jobs are in high demand but they are in short supply. what's the future of the workforce? we're going to get into that and then there's this. americans are already setting shopping records this holiday season so what could we expect for cyber monday? today. we're going to ask national retail federation president and

ceo matt shay, next. ♪

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ashley: we're already seeing some records this holiday shopping week. tell me more, lauren. lauren: black friday weekend, online, ashley, a record $9.55 billion was spent. i mean, are you kidding me? that's an increase of about 4.5% from last year. what happened to inflation? this is according to adobe analytics. the most popular items electronics, toys, and exercise equipment. what's interesting though if you look at store traffic the people that actually showed up that increased by about 3% as well so we're going to the store and we're shopping on our phones too

ashley: i have a feeling that lauren simonetti contributed to that 9 billion-plus. lauren: you're correct. ashley: [laughter] somewhere your husband has just fallen face-first on to the ground. let's bring in matthew shay. yeah, let's bring in matthew sha y, president and ceo of the national retail association. what are expecting in terms of sales today, of course it's cyber monday, but based on the numbers lauren just gave us, people are spending. >> ashley, good morning. i think lauren got it right. that reflects exactly what we predicted and what we forecast is this be a very big weekend kicking off the holiday in a way we really haven't experienced it for the post couple of years because of covid lockdowns, health environment, inventory challenges, and we're not facing those same kinds of challenges this year, so we expected 165, almost 170,000 people out, 10 million more than a year ago. i think we saw that.

65% of the people that are out over this weekend were out on black friday, but 40% of them are out today, or maybe they aren't out today, because it's cyber monday, and so there's going to be 65 million americans shopping today on cyber monday. ashley: people at work sitting at their desks, you know, hiding them from the boss on the screen s with amazon. talking of amazon by the way this is interesting, matt. walmart has overtaken amazon in shopper's search for black friday bargains which tells you a lot of the psyche of the consumer these days. they're looking for the very best deal and of course, that eats away at the retailer's bottom line though, does it not? >> well, ashley, i think we live in a world today in which consumers really expect to have a blended experience that can go online or they can be in-stores , and this weekend in particular, we know that more than 40% of us will start our shopping journey online, even before we get to a store, so

those retailers that have really emphasized the digital experience of blending it with physical interaction, i think, are going to be the winners as we come out of the pandemic, and that's one example of ways in which you can use the real estate blended with your digital experience to really provide value for consumers and take market share. ashley: and one other issue, i find interesting, matt, very quickly, is that we're seeing a lot more buy now pay later, a lot of people kind of jumping on the plans being offered by these retailers. does that tell you something about the economy? >> well i think we know, ashley , every one of us is trying to stretch our dollars further than ever before in the face of this inflation we've experienced the last year and a half, so people are looking for value. they are going to find it wherever they can. they are going to try different brands, different retailers, different stores and i think that's a reflection of also being creative about payment options. we've got a trillion and a half dollars sitting on the sidelines , excess pandemic savings. that's going to be a challenge from the federal reserve as long as we can all keep spending.

it's going to be hard to slow the pace of inflation and get the economy back on track with maybe more modest inflation rates. ashley: wow very good point and you know what? people are spending, no doubt about it. matthew shay, thanks so much for joining us, thank you. >> thanks, ashley. ashley: the biden family by the way was seen holiday shopping in nantucket this weekend, how nice. which stores were they walking into? lauren: they apparently lingered in ralph lauren, and black dog, as you saw, just before. the president was with the first lady, jill, and his daughter ashley. they were out in nantucket, a po sh resort on small business saturday, and they frequented the shops and spoke to the people. that's how he spends every thanksgiving. must be nice. ashley: very nice indeed, linger ing. lauren thank you very much. coming up, we are just about a week away from the georgia senate runoff between raphael

warnock and hersher walker. court filings show that $1.2 billion in cash has now been recovered in fatality's bankruptcy so far but that is just a fraction of the potential billions missing from customers accounts. we'll dig into where the former crypto king put the cash and where it came from, right after this.

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drawing questions of what else he spent customer money on. now, ftx lawyers are underscor ing this at last weeks hearing saying, "unfortunately the evidence seems to indicate that some, or all of them were also compromised individuals substantial amounts of money were spent on things that were not related to the business." now we followed the money and we're finding that ftx and its affiliated companies did fund over 2.5 million to campaigns and mid-term elections and so with little to no record keeping the source of bankman-fried's personal donations of 38.8 million are also being questioned. now further complicating matters we're finding that the former ceo was a prolific contributor to media outlets including a 3.25 million grant to the intercept and 5 million donation to pro- publica in progress before the exchange crashed and that underscores the criticism he bought favorable press in attempt to control the ftx narrative and this all ties back to the question of where the source of that money was. lawyers sharing ftx was run a

sam bankman-fried's own personal thiefdom, & company filings revealing he was the majority owner of dozen of affiliated companies with fatality with a structure similar to a russian nesting doll and that's problematic when you got no auditing of financial records for example, customer funds were not on the balance sheet so that allowed the ceo to have a slush fund that could be deployed potentially with little to no oversight. ashley: and there in-lies the problem. kelly thank you so much, great run-down. appreciate it. lauren come back in here. what's mark cuban saying about the cryptos right now? lauren: he says they have a place in the economy, and we've heard that from a lot of people. this is what he writes. separate the signal from the noise. there's been a lot of people making a lot of mistakes, but it doesn't change the underlying value. so maybe not a million coins out there, but you know, you have

bitcoin, ethererum and maybe a few others, but on the epic failure of ftx as kelly was just talking about this is what mark cuban wrote on sam bankman-fried "i don't know all of the details but if i were him i'd be afraid of going to jail for a long tim" i talked to guy and thought he was smart. i had no idea he was going to take other people's money and put it to his personal use, and ashley, that's the thing. many many smart people talked to sam bankman-fried and thought he was smart, trusted him, gave him money, and now, they are left in disbelief. how did that happen? there's a senate hearing on thursday. it's on the collapse on the lessons learned from the ftx fall-out, the cftc chair will testify but there's going to be a lot of hearings because a lot of innocent and a lot of smart knowledgeable people got duped, and mark cuban knows a thing or two about cryptocurrency so for him to also trust sam bankman-fried, you had bill

clinton speaking at his event in the bahamas just a few months ago. i mean really the more you look into this , it's amazing. ashley: a lot of people had blind faith in him. they thought he was smart but a pioneer in a new world of finance, and without all of the proper accounting, we had no idea, of course. neither did these people who are still trying to get their money back. lauren: or no accounting. ashley: no accounting, right. lauren thank you very much. let's take a look at these markets. we know we're moving lower let's take a look at the 10-year treasury yield. no spike there, just slightly lower at 3.68%. let's take a look at the price of gold. jonathan hoenig last week said he liked gold and silver, it's at $17.061, taking a look at bitcoin, talking to the cryptos, 16, 231 now down 261 bucks, and taking a look at the price of

oil with all of the goings on in china, the questions about demand, crude oil down a buck at $75.22 and take a look at the price of natural gas. that is down 5.5% at $6.64. let's take a look at the average price for a gallon of regular there you go ink across country it stands at $3.54. meanwhile, let's take a look at the price of a gallon of diesel. that's come down from six bucks but boy it's still hyatt $5.21 for diesel. so those big 18 wheelers still paying a lot of money to fill up all right, still ahead, louisiana senator bill cassidy, joe concha, will cain, and karol markowicz. the 10 a.m. hour of "varney" & company is next. ♪

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